1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for evaluating thermomechanical fatigue of a material subjected to high heat flux; the invention relates more particularly to a functional assembly enabling a sample of a given material to be subjected to such high heat flux, e.g. in order to assess the reliability of the predicted lifetime of a cryogenic rocket engine combustion chamber that is made at least in part out of the material (alloy) under consideration.
2. Description of the Related Art
An elasto-visco-plastic (EVP) type model has been developed for some years concerning the lifetime of structures that are raised to high temperature, such as for example the regenerator circuits (RC) of a cryogenic rocket engine combustion chamber, and these models are adapted to predicting the lifetimes of such structures.
It is therefore desirable to validate such an EVP lifetime model by subjecting the material of a specific testpiece to a set of loads that is as representative as possible of the real set of loads, at least concerning the imposed heat flux. The looked-for range of flux levels must be representative of that encountered in a rocket engine regenerator circuit, i.e. it must reach or indeed exceed 100 megawatts per square meter (MW/m2) over a circular zone having a diameter of at least 5 millimeters (mm).
Presently known solutions make it possible to reach lower heat flux levels, of the order of about 10 MW/m2. Some of them can implement complex cooling systems, e.g. making use of cryotechnical fluids, thereby requiring an installation that is complex and expensive, both in terms of design and of operation.